


The Nowhere Crowd

by tirsynni



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), minor hurt/comfort, pre-credits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-17 01:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13648914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tirsynni/pseuds/tirsynni
Summary: Thor was never good at knocking. It's worse when they share a room.





	The Nowhere Crowd

Thor had no idea how his brother has escape Asgard’s destruction or how he made it onto the ship, but he thanked the Norns for it. More than just gratitude for his brother’s return (not just physical but emotional, Loki’s smile imprinted in his mind) but the experience he provided. Thor (and Mjolnir, dear Mjolnir) fought for Asgard and Midgar and all the Nine Realms but ruling? 

Before his banishment, before Loki’s fall, before all of it, Thor took his place as future king of Asgard for granted ( _ took many things for granted _ ). Afterwards, even with his growth, he still accepted it without working to learn what it meant. Loki whispered tips in his ear and helped organize and helped him be a king when some part of him barely felt like a prince.

Yet Loki’s late arrival kept him from claiming a space when the rest of the refugees made the ship their temporary home. At least, that was hat Thor claimed when he ushered Loki into his own room. It had nothing to do with keeping an eye on him. Truly.

If it gave Thor a good starting point to find Loki when he had questions, that was just a bonus.

The door opened with a touch of Thor’s hand, and he started speaking as soon as he saw the familiar silhouette on the bed. “Loki, they want a  _ theater _ , and I  _ know _ \--”

Thor quieted. Loki froze.

The room was small and modest for a king and a prince: a small bath to the side, a dressing area on the opposite side, a large bed in the middle. Loki knelt in the middle of the messy sheets and blankets, slender hands spread out before him. 

Slender, blue hands. Loki’s eyes were wide and blood red in his scarred face. 

No, not scars, although they looked similar. Long, icy lines twined over his face, down his body. Lines marking him as Laufey’s kin, Odin told Thor once. The actual scar looked like a blackened line in the middle of his chest, like…

All of that took a heartbeat, and then Loki’s skin smoothed out into its familiar pallor. With a shrug, Loki sat adorned in an emerald tunic, grey-green eyes opaque.

“You could at least knock,” Loki said mildly. “It’s my room, too.” He raised an eyebrow and nodded behind Thor. “And perhaps close the door, if you don’t mind.”

Numb, Thor stepped forward so the door could slide shut behind him. Loki twisted off the bed, and as he moved, black leather flowed over his legs so when he stood, he was completely dressed. Loki ran his hands over his clothing as if straightening any wrinkles away.

“And of course they are interested in theaters,” Loki continued, walking toward the dresser and mirror. Thor followed him like a dreamwalker. In his mind, Loki’s skin was not blue but grey. Loki’s blood stained his clothes. When he returned for Loki’s body later, it had been gone but he hadn’t suspected Loki of walking off. Loki’s illusions always faded at a touch, and Thor ended up needing to burn his soiled clothes. “They are trapped in a ship, far away from anything which even reminds them of home. They need distractions and simple pleasures or you will have a riot on your hands.”

Loki waved a careless hand as he finished speaking before grabbing a gaudy golden brush. He looked in the mirror but didn’t meet Thor’s eyes when he started brushing his hair. Thor watched, mouth dry and throat tight. With his magic, Loki didn’t need to brush his hair, anymore than Frigga needed her boys to help her brush hers when they were younger.  _ Soothing _ , she called it.

“Loki,” Thor whispered. His tongue felt thick and clumsy.

“I suppose I’ll have to set it up. If it doesn’t involve --” Loki faltered, the hairbrush stilling. 

_ If it didn’t involve hitting things with his hammer _ , Thor finished. The thought  _ hurt _ , his hand empty, but he focused on the opening provided instead. “It wasn’t a trick then.”

Loki settled the brush down with a click. He ran his hands over his tunic, like wrinkles had returned in the last five minutes. He smiled at Thor in the mirror. “Of course not, but I am flattered that you thought so well of my magic. It is challenging for even me to pretend to be run through.”

Thor swallowed and the questions built in his throat like bubbling blood. Questions about what happened between Thor leaving and returning, how he survived, about Loki’s blue skin…

Suddenly becoming king granted no grace to his speech, no lightness to his mind. Loki kept smiling and Thor rubbed his shorn hair. He couldn’t stand looking at Loki’s blank eyes and knife-sharp mouth. He turned away but the scrubbed walls and tangled sheets provided no answers.

It being real changed nothing. Loki still faked his death through the silence of his survival. He still banished Odin and took his place on the throne. Through omission and pretense, Loki still lied.

But his sacrifice wasn’t a lie. That monster still ran him through. That had been Loki, bleeding and shaking in Thor’s arms.

“Why don’t you tell me these things?” Thor demanded, and that wasn’t what he wanted to ask. He meant to speak calmly -- he was King now, no more impetuous prince -- but Loki’s whispered words and dulled eyes remained trapped in his mind. “I thought you  _ dead _ . I  _ left you there. _ ”

Perhaps that was it. Perhaps it had nothing to do with Loki’s lies after all.

Thor rubbed his face and his empty socket ached with swipe. More vision than before and still blind. 

Loki scoffed, a crude noise from Loki Silvertongue. “Your priorities have always been skewed, Brother.” His voice came from right behind Thor. Thor turned and it took every ounce of self-control to keep from flinching. Eyes like bloody ice bore into Thor from inches away. “Shouldn’t this be more important than that minor incident? Having a monster on your ship with the last of your people?”

Minor…? More important? What came out instead was “I don’t think you’re full Jotunn.”

Those red, red eyes blinked. Loki stepped back, and his features were blue but still fair, still thinner than Thor would like. “...what?”

Thor waved in the general direction of his own face. “Your hair and eyelashes. I don’t think pureblooded Jotunn have those.”

Loki stared at him like he had lost his mind along with his eye. Thor shook his head and focused. “I thought you were dead and I left you there. You went limp and I didn’t…” Thor rubbed his face and for a moment Loki’s seemed grey again, grey and faded and cold, and he shuddered. “I just thought you were dead and I didn’t check. I could have checked your breathing or your heartbeat or --”

Loki’s hand -- white again -- covered Thor’s mouth. Loki stared incredulously at him. “While you were fighting Malekith,” he said, voice slow and each word enunciated with care, “I went to Asgard, banished our father, and ruled Asgard in his name for years. You thought I was dead and I took full advantage, and you feel guilty for not checking.”

All true, and trust Loki to speak the truth when he could use it as a blade. If Loki hadn’t banished Odin, would Odin still have passed? Still kept Hela’s existence quiet until his final moments? Thor had no clue. Yet…

Thor grabbed Loki’s hand and held it in his own. As always, it felt cool against his skin. Thor used to tease him about that when they were younger, neither having any clue why. “I told Valkyrie that I wanted to be a hero,” he said quietly. “That I had to go back and fight for our people because that was what heroes did.” He smiled, and it felt more like one of Loki’s than his own, mocking and mirthless. “But I feel like all I have been doing is fail those close to me.”

As soon as Odin -- Loki -- gave Thor permission, he ran to Midgar and then never stopped running. He never stopped running from Loki and Frigga and Jane, people he loved and still failed and left behind.

Loki’s nails dug into the meat of Thor’s palm. “I could have told you at any time I was alive,” he said softly. “If you take that from me in your need to be  _ heroic _ , I will stab you.”

Thor wanted to explain: he  _ knew _ that, knew what was Loki’s responsibility and what was  _ his _ , and doing something,  _ anything _ , to take care of Loki’s body, dead or alive, was  _ his _ . The flash in Loki’s eyes warned him to be silent, though. 

For now. He would find a way to try again. He wouldn’t let his failures make him lose Loki when he just got him back.

“So,” Thor tried, “blue?”

Loki brought his free hand to his face and started rubbing his nose. “Or we should concentrate on the theater. You can play the fool.”

Thor laughed but adding both things to the checklist in his mind. They still had months to go before their arrival in Midgar. He had time to work on creating a theater  _ and _ being a better brother.

Maybe all of that experience would help him be a good king, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Check me out on [tumblr](https://tirsynni.tumblr.com) for more Loki and Thor shinies.


End file.
